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SPEECH 



HON. S. S. COX, OF OHIO, 



IX KEPLT TO 



HOI. THO][AS COR¥II. 



ELEOTIOISr OF SPEAKER. 



DELIVEEED IN THE HOUSE OF EEPEESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 8, 1S59. 




WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED BY LEMUEL TOWERE 

1859. 



e43G 



OIlio Politics — Republicans opponents of L.aAV, Order, and the Cou' 

stitutiou — Hia^lier-la^v analyzed— tlie Bemocracy 

of tlie Northwest. 



SPEECH. 



Mr. CdV.wiN havint^ addressed the House at some length in favor of Mr. Sherman, 
the Republican candidate for Speaker, Mr. COX having obtained tlie floor, said— 

Mr. Clerk: I wish that some other member from Ohio would answer 
the very facetious and sophistical argument of ray colleague from^ the 
district uear my own, (Mr. Corwin\) I do not think, sir, that he differs 
so much from the Democratic party, as perhaps his position here might 
lead us to believe. But I do not believe that the masses of the Repuhlican 
party in the State of Ohio approve of his sentiments as here enunciated. 
I have always thought that the distinguished gentleman — and I have 
always quietly given'him a great deal of credit for it — went into the Re- 
publican party, with his national sentiments, for the purpose of breaking- 
down its sectionalism and destroying its distinctive features. But his 
speech to-day ought not to go to the country, without some response from 
a Democratic member from his own State. This response I will endeavor 
to give, without premeditation or preparation. 

Mr. Clerk, it seems to Die proper, as the nominee presented by the Re- 
publican party for Speaker is a Republican from the State of Ohio, that 
the politics of the Republican party of thrft State, of which he is an expo- 
nent, should be discussed. I am ready to say here, that that nominee is 
personally as unexceptionable to the Democratic party of Ohio, as any 
man of the other side, unless it might be my friend who has just taken his 
seat, (Mr. Corwin.) 

My friend paid his respects to my district last year, and he there 
charged me with inconsistencies which are not quite so glaring as those 
which he has exhibited here to-day. But I give my acknoivledgment 
to the gentleman, for the increased vote which the Democratic ticket re- 
ceived in that district, in consequence of the national speeches that he 
made there. A great many of the peo[)le of southern Ohio, a great many 
national men, and a great many Democrats, coincide, I must say, in the 
remarks of my coUejigue, (Mr. ConwiN ;) but it is not true that what he 
has said embodies the'^principles of the Republican party. It is not true 
that he speaks for their organization in Ohio. It is not true that he speaks 
the sentiments of their platform. I will show you, that that organization 
is one subversive of the Constitution, one that strikes down the judges of 
the State for daring to sustain that Constitution, and that the men in that 
party who do not go along with the men who speak the abolition senti- 
ment of the Western Reserve, are mercilessly slaughtered in Ohio, They 
have no controlling political status with their party. 

T know, sir, that gentleman stand here upon this floor, representing Re- 
publican constituents, who, as Mr. Greely says, have only a slight varnish 
of Republicanism. Old Whigs go before the State conventions, make 
their speeches, and present their candidates — national men but they al- 
ways are overruled. The conventions are turned into slaughter-houses 
for national men, who still cling to the Republican party. How was it in 
respect to striking down the chief justice of our State, for daring to do his 
duty? I do not know whether the gentleman who aspires to be Speaker 
indorsed that movement in convention. I hope that he did not. I hope 



that he Lelonged to that other wing, who sustained Judge Swan in his de- 
cision in favor of the constitutionality, of the fugitive slave law. But the 
fact remains, and cannot be blotted out; and so long as Ohio politics are 
now made a national matter, and the endeavor is to give thera a national 
tinge and color, I want the country to understand the lawless and orderless 
character of that organization. How did that question come up in the 
last campaign of our State ? I will give you the facts in a few words. 

A Kentuckian lost his slave, who had escaped into Ohio. The slave 
went to the neighborhood of the University of Oberlin. When he got 
there, he v/as aided and protected by that class of men, who think that 
their inward convictions should be the highest law of their action, irrespec- 
tive of constitutional obligation. The owner of that slave found a warrant 
for his action in the Constitution and the laws passed in pursuance of it. 
He went to the United States commissioner for the process cf recapture. 
He proceeded lawfully. It was found that he had a right to reclaim the 
fugitive and take him back to his service. After obtaining his writ at Co- 
lumbus, v/ith United States officers, he went up to the neighborhood of 
Oberlin. There the slave was arrested ; and after the arrest, a party of 
persons — Plumb, Peck, and others of the crowd of disunionists who dis- 
honor that part of Ohio — rescued him from the custody of the proper offi- 
cers of the Government. The United States officers did not choose to lay 
under the particular odium of failing to perform their duty. They went 
to the United States court at Cleveland, and there had these Oberlin res- 
cuers indicted. They were tried — these men who have, as they claim, the 
peculiar sanction of God Almighty to rise above law in this country. 
They were convicted. And what was the result? 

Why, sir, a scheme was got up by the Piepublican party, as I will show 
you, to break down that conviction. They started the idea that the law 
was unconstitutional. They sent for Judge Spaulding, who is the fabrica- 
tor of the Republican platform of 1856. He declared the fugitive slave 
law to be unconstitutional. It was urged that before punishment, the case 
should be taken before the supreme court. Down to the supreme court 
they went, black and white, lawyers and politicians, down to Columbus 
they hurried, to know whether the law was constitutional or not. You will 
bear in mind that there is a local sectionalism in the Republican party in 
Ohio, as there is a sectionalism in the Republican party outside of Ohio. 
We had five judges on our supreme bench. They were the tribunal to try 
the question. Three lived in the South and two in the North. Judge 
Swan, one of my constituents, "lived in Columbus. " Now," said these gen- 
tlemen, " we will make these judges decide- this law to be unconstitutional. 
Judge Swan's time is nearly out — how can we reach him ? We will do it, 
by bringing this discussion before the supreme court. If he does not de- 
cide that law to be unconstitutional, and release these men who have been 
convicted, then we will put him to the political torture." Accordingly, 
the eleven counties of the Western Reserve, which give the Republicans 
their majority in the State, were appealed to ; and I want it understood 
that out of three hundred and fifty thousand votes cast in our State, there 
are one hundred and seventy-one thousand two hundred and sixty-six good 
Democratic voters who have no approbation for law breaking and servile 
insurrection. (Applause upon the Democratic benches and in the galle- 
ries.) In that State we have a Democracy as firm as any which the Union 
can boast ! 

Well, sir, on this Western Reserve, which rules the Republican party in 
the State of Ohio, these men asserted that the United States officers ought 
to be hung as pirates, and they got together and formed a society 



wLIch they calUad "The Sons of Liberty," "Wtat more did ^hey do? 
The gentleman who preceded me (Mr. CoftWix) told us about the 
Cleveland convention, I would like bis attention, that we ma,y gat 
this matter right before the country. That convention was intended 
to intimidate Judge Swan. They held it, and passed resolutions for 
that purpose. When thev came to that meeting, ten thousand strong, 
they marched through the streets of Cleveland with Bcditious banners and 
significant music. I saw a description of it in a Republican paper. First 
marched the Sons of Liberty, with Giddings atth-err head — Giddings, whd 
had upon this floor announced himself in favor of a se.rvile insurrection, as 
I will conclusively show, notwithstanding the di>sd!iiiner of his successor 
yesterday. They marched through the stje«ts with banners, which were 
revolutionary against the Federal Government, aad which bore emblems 
which found their out-cmp at llarper's Ferry. One banner is noticeable. 
On one side of it is written : 

Ashtabula. 
Rcgnaute Populo. 
On the other : 

Sons of LiSerty, 1769. 

Down with the Stamp Act! 

1859. 

Down with the Fugitive Act ! 

Not "repeal it," for they were not then in favor of that, and no Repub- 
lican that I have ever known, has risen in his seat here and moved to 
repeal that law. 'And now, though committed to its ren*^'^' by their reso- 
lutions passed in convention, there is not one of them ^et up here and 
move the repeal of that enactment. The very genuieman (Mr. Cor- 
win) upon the committee who reported the resolution to the convention, 
and who i-ustained the nominee placed upon the platform then laid down, 
will not vote, as he has told us, in favor of the repeal of that law. Yes, 
sir, it was "down with the fugitive slave law;" not to repeal it, but to 
crush it in the dust; and, as if to give significance to their talk upon this 
subject, they marched through the streets to the emsic of the old French 
revolutionary song — the Marseilles Hymn, that glorious inspiration of 
Democracy ; that defiance, never hurled against constitutional liberty, till 
then ; but against despotic kingcraft ever. I have understood that these 
"Sons of Liberty" and the students from Oberlin sung it in French. Now 
you know our friends from New England, who made up the Sons of Liberty, 
have a na;^al twang peculiar to tteir singing, and the French language h;>s 
the same nasal peculiarity, and when the two were combined, they produced 
the most thrilling efi;ect in the streets of Cleveland, (Laughter.) Aux 
armes citoyens ! Formez hattallions ! (Great laughter.) You can im- 
agine how it sounded, Thev marched down ten thousand strong and 
appointed Giddings their chairman. Who is he \ We have heard him in 
this Hall. We know who he is, and of what party are those who stood 
around him here to give him aid and comfort as he preached his disunion 
and sectional doctrines. 

Yesterday, while the gentleman from Tenaesseo (Mr. Nelson) was ad- 
dressing the House in one of his Union strains, in order to show up the 
disunionists, he quoted from the famous or infamous Giddings appeal in 
favor of servile insurrection, and of which the Ilarper's Ferry aflair is the 
legitimate fruit. But the successor of Giddings arose and denied that that 
gentleman ever uttered such a sentiment upon this floor. And I have 
recently seen that the Journal of Commerce, of New York, has been com- 
.pelled to take back that sentiment, in consequence of the denial of Mr. 



Giddings. But tliat denial will not do. It is in the Congressional 
Globe, as the gentlema.n read it. It will be found on page 648 of 
the Congressional Globe of the first session of the Thirty- Third Congress ; 
and I will have it read, that gentlemen may see where the seed was sown 
of which this servile insurrection at Harper's Ferry was the inevitable 
sequence. 

Mr. Palmer. Will the gentleman yield a moment, that I may have 
read, in this connection, a resolution adopted 

Mr. Cox. Wait until I get through. I know what that resolution is. 
Here is what Mr. Giddings said : 

"Sir, I would intimidate no one; but I tell yoii there is a spirit in the North 
which v\'ill set at defiance all the low and unworthy machinations of this Executive,, 
and of the minions of it? power. When the contest shall come ; when the thunder 
shall roll, and the lightning fla.jh ; when the slaves shall rise in the South ; when, 
in imitation of the Cuban bondmen, the southern slaves of the South shall feel that 
they are men; when they feel the stirring emotions of immortality, and recognize 
the stirring truth that they are men, and entitled to the rights which God has be- 
stowed upon them ; when the slaves shall feel that, and when masters shall turn 
pale and tremble when their dwellings shall smoke, and dismay sit on each counte- 
nance, then, sir, I do not say ' we will laugh at vour calamity, and mock when your 
fear eometh,' but I do say, when that time shall come, the lovers of our race will 
stand forth, and exert the legitimate powers of this Government for freedom. We 
shall then have constitutional power to act for the good of our country, and do jus- 
tice to the slave. Th»n will we strike off the shackles from the limbs of the slaves. 
That will be a period when this Government will have power to act between slavery 
and freedom, and when it can make peace by giving freedom to the slaves. And 
let me tell you, Mr. Spe^vker, tliat that time hastens. It is rolling forward. The 
President is exerting a power that will hasten it, though not intended by him. I 
hail it as I do the approaching dawn of that political and moral miUennium which 
I am well assured will come upon the world." 

I would not have referred to this matter but for the denial of Mr. Gid- 
dings's successor. 

Mr. HuTCHiKs. If I mistake not, the extract read from the Globe is not 
the extract quoted by the gcutleman from Tennessee yesterday. That ex- 
tract is as follows : 

" I look forward to the day wlien there shall be a servile insurrection in the South; 
when the black man, armed with British bayonets, and led on by British ofhcers, shall 
assert his freedom, and wage a war of extermination against his master. And 
though we may not mock at their calamity, nor laugh when their fear «ometh, yet 
we will hail it as the dawn of a political millennium." 

Is that, word for word, what the gentleman has read ? 

Mr. Cox. I do not know, nor care whether it was word for word, for I 
said yesterday that I had not compared it with the original. I said yes- 
terday that the sentiment was the very same; but there it is, from the 
Globe, every whit as obnoxious. 

Mr. HuTCHiNS. That is another thing. 

Mr. Cox. Let me ask the gentleman if he endorses that sentiment? 

Mr. IIuTCHiNS. I will say to the gentleman that, when the House is 
organized, and I can get the floor at the proper time, I will answer all 
questions which may be put to me; but I will not answer any now,. 
(Hisses from the Democratic benches.) Will the gentleman allow me to 
ask him a question ? (Cries of "Oh, no ! that won't do I") 

Mr. Cox. I understand that my colleague was sent here as the successor 
of Mr. Giddings, because he was even yet more radical than was Giddings 
himself, who was compelled to stay at home, because, in an unguarded, 
moment, he voted for the Montgomery-Crittenden bill, which permitted 
the people of a Territory to form a constitution recognizing slavery. How 
that may be, I know not ; but in pursuance of my other statement, I will 



refer to the Appendix of tlie Congressional Globe, of tlie iame session, page 
418, where there has been some modification of that sentiment of Mr. Gid- 
dings, but not such a modification, aa to destroy the murderous force and 
seditious intent of the extract cited by the gentleman from' Tennessee, (Mr. 
Nelsok.) 

What I want to show, particularly to my colleague, (Mr. Coewin,) who 
does not difier from me so much <->?! this subject, is that in tte last_ cam- 
paign in Ohio, he was supporting a platform, entirely different from his sen- 
timents here proclaimed. He aided a man placed upon that platform who 
had no af^uity with his doctrines, in relation either to the fugitive slave 
law, or to the perpetuity of the Union, or to the sanctity of the constitu- 
tional compact. 

Mr. CoBWH*. Are not the doctrines I put forward to-day the same as 
those avowed in Ohio by Governor Dennison? 

Mr. Cox. I will answer. The gentleman sustained Goyernor Denni- 
son. But mark you ! at the same r'evolutionary meeting. Governor Denni- 
son was present 

Mr, CoRwiN. No, he was not. 

Mr. Cox. He was present, as I was about to say, by letter; more sig- 
nificant, because more premeditated, than by personal presence. And at 
that meeting, which was called for the purpose of breaking down the law 
and the Constitution, this letter from Governor Dennison, date^l May 20, 
1859, was read. I will read the concluding paragraphs : 

" Let me express my ardent hope that the proceedings of your eonvention may be 
puch as will permanently eontritute to the advancement of the saerad pi-mCiples of 
freedom, justice, and humanity, which have been so violently assailed by the im- 
prisonment in your eounty jail of Plumb and Peck and thair devoted colleagues, 
under the insulting provisions of the fugitive slave act." 

What does that mean? My venerable friend here says 

Mr. CoRWiN. Not venerable, if you please. 

Mr. Cox. Well, my young fi-iend from Ohio, then — in the psesence of the 
ladies, (Laughter) — my young friend from Ohio says that be supported Mr. 
Dennison, who was the embodiment of the principles of the paity, and iie 
sustained him in all his principles and all his conduct. 

Mr. CoRwijr. I ask if Govenior Dennison did not, in all bife speeches in 
Ohio, advance the same doctrines as I did ? 

Mr. Cox. If Governor Dennison advanced the same doctiixies .as the 
gentleman, then he must have run counter to his own most deliberate 
written statement. He says, in effect^-" You Plumb, and you Peck, and 
all your 'devoted colleagues' now in jail for breaking the law of the United 
States — you men who have rescued from the United States officers one 
properly in their charge; you who were guilty of breaking the law and the 
♦ Constitution, you were engaged in the cause of liberty, humanity, and jus- 
tice" — forsooth ! And the gentleman says he sustained Mr. Dennison, and 
sustained the sentiments Dennison advocated. If he sustained him, he 
sustained for justice that which breaks down the courts; he sustained that 
for humanity and liberty, which will break down the Constitution, which 
under God is the best and most refined system of civil polity that God ever 
vouchsafed to man for civil government. (Great applause.) 

Mr. Ashley. Did not the so-ealled Democratic party sustain Judge 
Eanney ? And did not Ptanney oppose the fugitive slave law ? 

Mr. Cox. As to the last question — no, sir 1 Judge Eanney stood by the 
fugitive slave law, after it was enacted. Yes, and the old Whig party, too, 
in 1850, of which Dennison was a member, of which he was the presiden- 
tial elector in 1852, approved in their platform, of the compromise measures, 



iaeluding the fugitive slave law, as a finality on that subject. The gentleman 
near me, (Mr. Bingham,) I b»lieve, then sustained the same measures. But 
last year, they were found in convention, voting against that finality. They 
regarded it as a dead letter. It was of no consequence any longer with ref- 
erence to this Government. The comity between the States was nothing. 
They yielded to the " pressure" referred to by the gentleman, (Mr. Cor- 
yns,) which came from the Reserve. 

Mr. BiNaHAM. I understand my colleague to make the remark that, in 
the year 1850, I approved of the fugitive slave act. I beg leave to say- 
that my colleague has fallen unintentionally into a great mistake in refer- 
ence to that. In 1850, according to my recollection, and I do not think 
I am mistaken, there was a convention in session in the city of Nashville 
which had for its avowed object the disruption and destruction of the 
American Union and Constitution. A convention was called in Cincinnati 
for the purpose of denouncing 

Several Voices. That is not so. 

Mr. Cox. I ask you simply whether you sustained the fugitive slave 
law? 

Mr. Bingham, I tell the gentleman that I did no such thing. 

Mr. Cox. I am satisfied with the gentleman's answer. 

Mr. Bingham. But will the gentleman do me the justice to permit me 
to state what I did do? 

Mr. Cox. I ask you whether you did or not, at Cincinnati, at a Union 
meeting, make a speech sustaining the compromise measures of 1850, in- 
cluding the fugitive slave law ? 

Mr. Bingham. I did no such thing. 

Mr. Cox. Then, sir, you were wrongly reported in the city papers. 

Mr. Bingham. And in the same city paper I am reported as dissenting 
openly and publicly in that speech to a resolution which declared that law 
constitutional ; and I dissent from it to-day as I did then. The speech to 
which I refer was very imperfectly reported in the papers. 

Mr. Cox. Oh ! that was it ! Do you agree with my distinguished 
friend (Mr. Corwin) in regard to its constitutionality ? 

Mr. Bingham. I do not agree with him or any other man as to its 
being constitutional. 

Mr. Cox. Then, where are we to find any harmony in the Republican 
party on this subject? 

Mr. Bingham. I answer by saying, that you will find no such harmony 
in yout own party. 

Mr. Cox. That is no answer, sir. Our distinguished friend (Mr. CoR- 
-WTn) who spoke to-day, says that he is the embodiment of that party ; and 
the gentleman here (Mr. Bingham) must be a rebel. Mr. Clerk, I do not 
understand where the head or the tail of the Republican party is. Is the * 
gentleman (Mr. Corwin) the head or the tail ? (Great laughter.) I think 
of it, as the Irishman thought of the elephant — "there is sure a tail at both 
ends of the animal." (Great laughter.) 

Now, I ask my distinguished friend, who is the candidate for Speaker, 
(Mr. Sherman,) whether or not he believes in the constitutionality of the 
fugitive slave law? I hope my friend will do me the courtesy to answer 
this question. It is a serious matter. It relates to one of the compromises 
of the Constitution ; one of the sacred compacts, under which the Republic 
was. organized, and without which it could not have been made and could 
not continue to exist. 

Mr. Sherman. I decline, as I did the other day, to answer any inter- 
rogatories. 



Mr. Cox. I did not Lear my colleapfue, 

Mr. Shermax. I will repeat it : I decline to answer the interrogatory 
of my colleague, as he knew I would ; and I will state to him, and to gen- 
tlemen on the other side of the House, that I stand upon my public record. . 
I do not expect the support of gentlemen on that side of the House, who 
have, for the last four years, been engaged in a series of measures — none of 
which I approve. I have no answers to give them. (Applause and hisses.) 
Mr. Cox. I do not know what contest for the last four years, it is upon 
which the gentleman ha« so conspicuous a'rccord. If it was in relation to sla- 
very iu the Territories, or the admission of new States, I do not think his re- 
cord is so very definite upon that subject, that he can treat ray (juestion so 
cavalierly ; for when the State of Oregon came here with a constitution which 
ay;\s free and made by the people— free, and made so by enough of them, 
where then, was the record of the present candidate for Speaker ? Why, 
sir, when that vote was taken, or just before it was taken, when he had a 
chance to manifest his sympathy for freedom and in favor of the free State on 
the Pacific, which was knocking at the door for admission, how did he treat 
those noble Republicans who cry aloud for freedom in his State ? "Why, 
by going precipitately out of yonder door. (Roars of laughter and ap- 
plause.) 

Mr. SiiERMAx. Did I understand my colleague to allude to me as evad- 
ing a vote ? 

Mf. Cox. I saw the gentleman in the Hall before the vote was taken — 
but a few moments before. 

Mr. Shermax. Upon what question ? 
Mr. Cox. The Oregon question. 

Mr. Shermax. Mr. Clerk, allow me to say to ray colleague _ 

Members on the Democratic side. Don't yield to him. He decHnes to 
answer questions. 

Mr. Cox. I will hear my colleague. 

Mr. Sherman. I will say to my colleague that I never evade a vote. 
Uniformly, upon all questions relating to the admission of Oregon, I voted 
against it. I was engaged at the time of the final vote on a special com- 
mittee of this House, and I weat down to the committee room with a gen- 
tleman on the other side. 

Mr. Cox. And yet every other member of your committee was here to 
vote at the time the vote was taken ! Mr. Clerk, the gentleman says he 
voted against the admission of Oregon in all its prelimiuajy stages, but 
when it came to the cap-sheaf— when there was a fair opportunity of ex- 
tending the last vote of welcome to the expected sister State — when there 
was a chance to put the apex upon the pyramid of freedom — he was not 
there ! 

Xow, I only wish to expose to the country and to the House, the inconsis- 
tent, heterogeneous elements which make up this mosaic, called Republi- 
canism in Ohio. What are they ? Mr. Deunison, their candidate for Gov- 
ernor, as I have already said, was an old line Whig in 1850, was a Gene- 
ral Scott elector in 1852, and sustained the platform of the Whig party, 
which said the fugitive slave law and the compromises of 1850 were a fi- 
nality. He changed round this year; and, by the aid of the distinguished 
gentleman who last spoke, (Mr. Corwin,) was made Governor of Ohio, by 
the votes of the Western Reserve men to whom he bowed in the dust. By 
the letter I have quoted, you will see that he changed all his notions as to 
the fugitive slave act and the compromises of 1850. He hailed the infrac- 
tion of the Constitution as justice ; he hailed the breaking of the law as 
liberty ; he hailed the rescuing of the lawbreakers as humanity. And then 



10 

he went out to the people of Ohio and undertook to eay, in his speeches to 
one portion of our people, that he was an old line Whig, and in another 
portion he sang the Marseilles Hymn with these Oberlin gentlemen, Jfow, 
,1 propose to read the rest of his letter. I wish to show who was the candi- 
date sustained by these national Republicans from Ohio, including the gen- 
tleman, (Mr. CoRWiN.) He said further : 

"And that in the contest between the antagonisms of freedom and slavery, ["th$ 
irrepressible conflict, " you see,] forced upon us by the southern oligarchy and its 
northern allies, we may at all times proye ourselves worthy descendants of the heroi« 
founders of the Republic, who declared one of the great purposes of the Federal 
Constitution to be the securing to themselves and their posterity ' the blessings of 
liberty.' 

" Accept the assurance of my sincere regard personally, and my uncompromising 
hostility to slavery and despotism in every form." 

Well now, sir, what further took place at the meeting to which this let- 
ter was addressed ? Why, I will tell you. Mr. Giddings, whose sentiments 
were the natural antecedents and causes of the Harper's Ferry affair, dis- 
missed that convention of ten thousand with a benediction. Their leaders 
came down to the city of Columbus, black and white, to find out whether 
or not the supreme court would decide adversely to the constitutionality of 
the fugitive slave law. They thought they had it all right. Judge Swan's 
time was nearly out. They thought they would hold this Abolition rod 
from Cleveland over him. But, before I go further upon this point, allow 
me to say that Governor Chase was at that meeting in Cleveland, but he 
did not counsel exactly as my distinguished friend (Mr, Corwin) has said 
he did. He did not counsel them to fight this matter at the ballot-box 
altogether. He got up in that meeting of disorganizers and revolutionists 
with their Marseilles Hymn, and their cries and shrieks of " down with the 
fugitive slave law I" and he laid his hand upon his heart, or that particular 
part of his anatomy where his heart is supposed to reside, (applause and 
hisses,) and he said: 

"Some of the most respected citizens of the State, whom he had known for yeai-?, 
bad done what they believed to be right, and which not one man in ten thousand 
would look up into the blue sky, with his hand on his heart, and say was not right." 

He added these significant words : 

"This case has been brought before the courts of the State, and they are bound 
to carry out their duty under such a view of it. If the process for the release of 
any prisoner should issue from the courts of the State, he was free to say that so 
long as Ohio was a sovereign State, that process should be executed." 

He promised that if the supreme court of Ohio, at Columbus, should de- 
cide that law to be unconstitutional, as he thought it was unconstitutional, 
that for one, as chief magistrate and commander-in-chief of the forces of 
our State, he would see that that nullification was made effective, even to 
the shedding of the blood of our citizens. (Laughter from the Republican 
side.) Yes, sir, let them laugh over it. It is nevertheless true, that they 
came down to Columbus, with some of your Harper's Ferry cut-throats 
among them, to break down the laws of the United States, armed with 
pistols and knives — black men and white men — to despoil the State of 
Ohio of its fair reputation as one of the faithful States of this Confederacy. 

Well, it so happened that they reckoned without their host. Judge 
Swan delivered the opinion of the majority of the court* Though he had 
been a Republican, and had received eighty thousand majority on their 
ticket in 1854, he held that for sixty years, the law of 1793 had been upon 
the statute book, acquiesced in and sustained. He held that the law of 
1850, amending it, had been, by the same authority, sustained by the 
supreme courts of Massachusetts, of Rhode Island, of Pennsylvania, of Ip- 



11 

diana, and of California, and by the supreme court of Ohio on the circuit ; 
and that the Wisconsin case, if properly examined, wjis no exception to tho 
general rule, which decided that the act of 1793 and its amendment of 
1850 were constitutional acts. Here is the exact language: 

"Whatever differences of opinion may now exist in the piiblic mind, as to the 
powers of Congress to punish rescuers, as provided in the acts of 1793 and 1850, no 
such vital blow is given either to constitutional rights or State sovereignty by Cob- 
gress thus enacting a law to punish a violation of tho Constitution of th.e United 
States as to demand of this court the organization of resistance. If, after more than 
aixty years of acquiescence by all departments of the national and State governments, 
in the power of Congress to provide for the punishment of rescuers of escaped slaves, 
that power is to be disregarded, and all laws which may be passed bj* Congress on 
tliis subject from henceforth are to be persistently resisted and nullified, the work 
of revolution should not be begun by the conservators of the public peace." 

4-nd, as a fit and eloquent climax to his decision, he used this expression: 

"As a citizen, I would not deliberately violate the Constitution or the law by in- 
terference with fugitives from service. But if a weary, frightened slave should ap- 
peal to me to protect him from his punsuers, it is possible I might momentarilj' forget 
my allegiance to the law and Constitution, and give him a covert from those who 
were on his track; there are no doubt many slaveholders who would thus follow the 
instincts of human sj-mpathy. And if I did it, and was prosecuted, condemned, and 
imprisoned, and brought by my counsel before this tribunal on a habeas corpus, and 
was then permitted to pronounce judgment in my own case, I trust I .should have 
the moral courage to say, before God and the country, as I am now compelled 
to say, under the solemn duties of a judge, bound by my official oath to sustain the 
supremacy of the Constitution and the law : 'The prisoner must be remanded.'" 

That- was the decision of our best judge in Ohio, our chief justice. He 
was a man, Mr, Clerk, of spotless integrity of character — a man who held 
the balance of justice equipoised between high and low, rich and poor. 
He was learned, impartial, and decisive for the right. In all respects he 
was an upright judge. And for deciding thus, mark you ; for hews: an im- 
pediment in the way of the ambition of our Republican Governor ; for re- 
fusing to aid these higher-law fanatics of the Reserve; for refusing to serve 
under Joshua R. Giddings and his crew of the North, who counseled 
that the United States oflicers should be shot down as pirates — for doing 
that, the Republican convention struck his name from the roll of judges as 
unfit to wear the ermine ! He was not pliant to the purposes of higher- 
law fanaticism ! And my colleague (Mr, Corwin) sustained the conven- 
tion in this lawless and orderless proceeding, I know that in the cam])aign 
which followed he preached strong and well against these disorgauizers. 

But I never could understand why he took the Republican stand-point 
he did, from which to hurl his thunders against the lawless and orderless 
miscreants of our State. There was one party where he might have done 
it with consistency. 

When the Republican convention voted, as he confesses they did, and 
voted unanimously, that the fugitive slave law was " subversive of both the 
rights of the States and the liberties of the people, and as contrary to the 
plainest duties of humanity and justice, and abhorrent to the moral sense 
of the civilized world," and when they demanded its repeal, where, I sub- 
mit to him, does it place him before the country? He admitted, in reply 
to my question, that as one of Mr. Fillmore's Cabinet, he approved of that 
law; he thinks it constitutional ; he will not repeal it. Yet he contented 
himself with voting against it in committee. He allowed it to pass the 
convention without dissent. He supported the candidates who were asso- 
ciated with its most solemn declaration, and who accepted nominations 
from the same convention. And yet, further, he went forth to battle in the 
State against the very platform and /or the very candidates thus placed be- 
fore the people ! Am I not right, then, in saying that there was no other 



12 

mode by which he could be consistent and national, except by coming over 
to the Democratic orcranization, and fighting with them for the integrity of 
the laws and of the Constitution? 

That there may be no mistake, let me refer to the resolution of the Re- 
publicans of Ohio : 

" Resolved, That, proclaming our determination rijjidly to respect the consti- 
tutional obligations imposed upon the State by the Federal compact, we maintain 
the union of the States, the rights of the States, and the liberties of the people; and, 
in order to attain these important ends, we demand the repeal of the fugitive slave 
act of 1850, as it is subversive of both the rights of the States and theliberties of 
the people, and as contrary to the plainest duties of humanity and justice, and ab- 
horrent to the moral sense of the civilized world." 

Now, what explanation does the gentleman give us of this remarkable 
resolution ? He tells us, that there was a clause in it, when before the com- 
mittee, " that the fugitive slave law was unconstitutional," and that it 
was stricken out before reported. Ay, sir, that was the trade that was 
made in the committee. After striking that out, to please the weaker 
wing — then to please the dominant abolition wing — they go right into the 
convention and strike down the man who had decided it to be constitu- 
tional. Is not this a much more emphatic condemnation of that law as 
unconstitutional, than any resolution ? If I had time, I could weary the 
House with the evidence from Republican journals and leaders, showing 
that Judge Swan was thus immolated, and because of that very decision. 
The selection of his competitor, Judge Gholsou, was not from convenience 
of locality. It was because he was recommended as a practical Abolition- 
ist, who had freed his slaves in Mississippi. But it turned out, as might 
have been expected, that he sold his slaves, pocketed the money, and came 
to Ohio to play a conspicuous part for the anti-slavery party ! 

Well, Mr. Clerk, I might pursue this matter further. I have heard my 
friend here (Mr. Corwin) make appeals to the patriotic, the order-loving, 
tlie law-abiding people of our State and of my own city. The very night 
after the convention was held, I heard him make a speech in Columbus. I 
happened to be in the audience among some of the gentlemen from the 
Reserve while he was, speaking, and many of them thought — and gave ex- 
pression to their thoughts — that he was making a Democratic speech. 
(Much laughter.) I heard a gentleman in my neighborhood say, that he 
believed the pro-slavery men had "yanked Governor Corwin right reound" 
on this question, and that "his speech was no better (for they sometimes 

do swear out there) than one of your d d Locofoco speeches." (Roars 

of laughter.) 

jSTow, Mr. Clerk, you see the position of this Ohio Republican party. I 
venture the assertion that if we could poll the members of the Ohio dele- 
gation on the other side of the House, we should find them, perhaps, 
equally divided on this momentous question on which the Union of the 
States i.s founded, and without which it never could have been made. I 
think that perhaps my friend on the right (Mr. Corwin) would be in a 
minority, if he were to poll the delegation. He shakes his head. How do 
you think it stands? You have how many members? 

Mr. Vallandigham. Fifteen. 

Mr, Cox. You have fifteen members of the delegation. Did you ever 
poll them? No? You do not know how they stand upon this question? 
Well, my impression is that you are in a minority, and if you do want to 
hold a class- meeting some time, as you said, and will call in your Demo- 
cratic brethren, we will take the sense or the census of the meeting. (Great 
laughter.) 

I was gratified, Mr. Clerk, to hear our friend here give us a little dialectics 



13 

on the subject of the higher law. I would have been glad if it had been 
delivered in Ohio — in Cleveland — before the Ilarper's Ferry foray took 
place, and before the infamous disunion meeting there the other day. Per- 
haps he did deliver it. I know he did deliver some portions of it. But 
Mr. Wendell Phillips, whom he denounces here so eloquently, ip, as I claim, 
in his logic and in his philosophy, the very exponent of the Republican 
theory aud dq^-trine ; and I will show you how I will prove it. He holds 
to the idea of individual sovereignty. 
A Member. Squatter sovereignty ? 

Mr. Cox. No, sir ; not squatter sovereignty, nor territorial sovereignty, 
nor congressional sovereignty. He opposes congressional sovt-reignty, as 
Republicans oppose it, unlei-s it prohibits slavery. He opposes popular 
sovereignty all the time, as Jiepublicans do; and I will show you wherein 
he agrees with the Republican party in its philosophy. He says that there 
can be no civil society unless every individual member of it bows to its au- 
thority. He says that Governor Wise had no naore right to hang John 
Brown than John Brown had to hang Governor Wise. In his opinion, the 
State of Virginia is no more than a piratical crew. He says that there can 
be no majority, no minority. Anything which comes into opposition with 
his convictions must go down or go up with those convictions, not except- 
ing even the Constitution and laws of the country. Herein he is in har- 
mony with the dominant segment of the Republican party. 

I will go one step farther. That is the doctrine of the New York Tri- 
bune, and of Governor Chase, applied to the Territories. My distinguished 
friend (Mr. Corwin) shakes his head. I will tell him where he will find 
it. He will find it in his message of January, 1856, where he says that the 
right of property in man cannot be created by any civil government ; that 
there is no power in any organized community to create the relation of 
master and slave ; that no majority in a Territory, while such, or when it 
frames a State constitution, can create the relation of master and slave. 
He would hold that each individual has the right for himself to decide all 
these questions pertaining to personal liberty, any law to the contrary not- 
withstancfmg. Is not this the Republican doctrine? Hence Governor 
Chase is logical when he says, that Congress may prohibit slavery, but that 
it has no power to establish it. He would be logical, if he said, tbat the 
people of a Territory, by a majority, might prohibit slavery, but have no 
power to establish it. That iCjthe legitimate consequence of this individual 
sovereignty preached by your ^Vendell Phillipses. If it has not been 
avowed by my honorable friend, at least he has indorsed the iudorser of it. 
He says : " Never !" 

Why, in Columbus one year ago — I have the paper here — you paid your 
attention to my district. There you shook hands with Governor Chase, on 
Goodale Park platform — did you not? You said that you had voted for 
him, and had stood by him. Do you not remember how facetiously you 
remarked on your own countenance? You furnished your complexion 
to the party, and he the colored principle. (Great lauuhter.) I remember. 
Don't you remember how cordially you embraced ? You shake your head 
again. Pardon me. I do not mean a bodily embrace — no, by no manner 
of means ; but you had a most aft'ectionate political hug before the people 
of Ohio ! (Renewed laughter.) What, then, did the gentleman indorse in 
Governor Chase ? He indorsed the individual sovereignty of Wendell 
Phillips, as applied by Governor Chase to civil society and the institution 
of slavery in the Territories. It is the same doctrine that these fanatics 
have. They have a great family of isms. You can tell them all by their 
hereditary marks of insanity. (Laughter.) 



Ptead in the Tribune the enunciation of free-love doctrines. Stephen 
Pearl Andrews comes out — and mark how his logic suits Mr. "Wendell 
Phillips, Governor Chase, and the whole Republican party. _ Stephen Pearl 
Andrews says that he is for individual sovereignty, not in reference to 
slavery in the Territories, but in reference to — to — the affectional nature. 
(Laughter.) He is opposed to any affinity with any man or woman who 
does not come up square to the idea of free-love, unrestrained by the mar- 
riage relation or civil authority. He says — "What! Bring your lawto 
bear upon me ; enact that I shall live in a state of marriage under the civil 
law, against my passional attractions. What ! Compel my sister to keep, 
with her old husband, against her will ! No, I am for liberty, God and 
liberty !" — which means the Devil and free lust. So they go on, and so 
these individual sovereigns run through the catalogue. They are all tied 
together by the same string of isms which our friend here has so eloquent- 
ly and inconsistently denounced. 

Now, Mr. Clerk, the time for the Republican party to have denounced 
these dangerous doctrines, was not after the Harper's Ferry affair had oc- 
casioned so much dissatisfaction, anxiety, apprehension and dismay in the 
South. The time to have denounced them was, when Mr. Giddings made 
liis speech here in favor of servile insurrection. The time to have de- 
nounced them was, when Helper came along with his bad book; when Gov- 
ernor Seward said, that there was a higher law than the Constitution which 
required the extermination of slavery, and "that you and I must do it." 
Then was the time for denunciation, and not after old Brown, wrought upon 
by the everlasting rub-a-dub of the abolition driim, got together his recruits, 
crept into the valley of the Blue Ridge, collected his 810,000 worth of rifles 
and pikes, and in the night, when no premonition had been given, when all 
was hushed — 

Mr. Miles. On Sabbath. 

Mr, Cox. Yes, sir; when there was no sound to disturb the quiet but 
the church-going bell — took possession of an armory with one hundred 
thousand stand of arms, imprisoned inoffensive citizens, and slayed others. 
Why did you not denounce these doctrines in the bud? Why did you not 
stop the bloody instructions of which this was the fruit? Why were they 
not denounced from the pulpit, forum, and rostrum ? Why not denounced 
from these seats in Congress ? You come up at this late day and say, " Oh I 
we do not approve of this thing. The peoj)le of the free States do not ap- 
prove of it." Neither do they. 

My friend (Mr. Corwin) was right when he said that the people of Ohio, 
outside of the Western Reserve, are not in favor of insurrection and disso- 
lution. I think that the Reserve ought to be cut ott' and slid over to Canada, 
for which it has more affinity than for the United States. (Laughter.) 
Mr. HuTCHiNS. Why, then, cut off" a part of the Union ? 
Mr. Cox. I am sure that our people would be glad to exchange those 
counties of the Western Reserve for Cuba with cheap sugar and molasses. 
(Great applause and laughter.) My friend (Mr. Corwin) is a correct ex- 
ponent of the sentiment in Ohio with reference to this insurrection. I am 
flad he has referred to it in the way he has. I will add my testimony — 
feeble as it is — to the testimony of the gentleman, to convince the South, 
that these marauders and murderers have no sympathy from the mass of 
the people of that State, from which most of them seem to have come, and 
within whose borders they concocted their fell designs. 

It is due to the gentlemen of the South who have shown so much in- 
terest, anxiety, and apprehension on this subject, to say that at least one 
hundred and seventy-one thousand two hundred and sixty-six Democratic 



15 

voters of Ohio put their senl of disapprobation on all the men connected 
either by sentiment or act with this matter. (Applause in the galleries.) 
That was the vote last year and if it were properly represented in this Hall, 
instead of six Democratic members only, we would now have ten. From 
the sentiment of this year, four of these Republican gentlemen yonder, 
would be compelled to bid adieu to this scene of congressional life. 

But the distinguished gentleman who preceded me (Mr. Corwik) says, 
and says truly, that there is no sentiment in the southern part of our State — 
at least in that part of the State which he and I represent, which would 
not disapprove, in toto, of the men who have preached and acted out this 
servile insurrection. There is no sentiment in that part of Ohio which 
does not at once and forever protest against that horrible specter of histo- 
ry — a servile insurrection. I may go further and do justice to the Repub- 
lican vote of Ohio this year. It was one hundred and eighty-four thousand 
five hundred and two. More than half of that number, sir, in my judg- 
ment, thoroughly condemn this raid upon Virginia. While I admit the. 
sentiment is different in the Reserve and at Cleveland; while I admit that 
the noisy leaders and blatant journalists who undertake -to manage and do 
control the Republican party in its platform and candidates, are not blessed 
with the same genuine spirit — I freely and willingly bear my testimony to 
the public execration which in Ohio has followed the insurgents at Har- 
per's Ferry, and which will consume their aiders and abettors. Let me go 
further. 

When you come to the great Northwest you find one million one hun- 
dred and sixty-two thousand voters in her seven States. This is a hundred 
thousand more than all the votes in the South, one-third of the whole 
Union, and three times as many as New England. I believe, sir, that more 
than one-half of these votes will be cast in 1860 for the Democratic party, 
for the rights of the States and the permanence of Federal concord. You 
will find those voters warm in favor of the Union and of the Constitution, 
which is the only ligament which holds that Union together. You will 
find this attachment not merely in our party, but among the very men who 
voted for my friend (Mr. Corwin) and many of the Republicans upon this 
floor. Look to the great Northwest, and to its power as it is now, and as 
it will be ! She has a lake and river tonnage of four hundred thousand 
tons, and five thousand miles of river and lake coast. She has, and must 
have ever, the Mississippi river as her outlet. Has she nothing at stake ? 
She will be able to protect herself and the Union besides. In 1860 she 
will have as many Representatives upon this floor, as the whole South will 
then have, and three members to one from New England. You will find 
in her a conservative element which will say to the North, with its extre- 
mists, and to the South, with its extremists, "thus far shalt thou go, and 
no further; here shall the waves of disunion be stayed!" You will find 
in the Northwest a conservative element, which, if we have, as we shall 
have, the Cincinnati platform unaltered, will rise up to the support of the 
Democratic party, as the only safe repository of that constitutional power 
by which this Government is to be carried on. 

It is said by men of science, that the least disturbance of the law of grav- 
itation in the universe will disturb not only the stars in their courses, but 
that it will change the position of the lightest flower upon the face of the 
earth. So it is with respect to that political gravitation by which the 
States are held in their spheres as they revolve around the Federal center. 
Not only will the disturbance of our political gravitation, in the least par- 
ticular, whether by resistance to law or by riotous insurrection, disturb 
the relation of the various States, but it will disturb that concord of feeling 



1C 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

in each individual citizen— w |||i]fflllillll|'i^^^^^ ism— without 

which the Constitution and ||^|^^^1 1 °^- Without" 

fraternity of feeling that Cor i, l! i J^ere wisp of 

straw-a rope of sand. Ther. lllilHillli^^^^^ ,t which can- 

not and will not listen to a dis Wll ^ 

I regret to hear upon this side of the Chamber the dissolution of the 
Union spoken of as a contingency. I wish to say in behalf of the national 
Democrats of Ohio, that with them, there is no such word as that rung in 
our ears by southern gentlemen — " dissolution of the Union per se." We 
know no dissolution per se. We have no dead or living language to phrase 
such sentiments. We are for the Constitution and for the Union. We 
have no language to express anything with respect to breaking those ties, 
so eloquently depicted by my friend, (Mr. Corwin,) which bind us together. 
Those ties are as old as the Constitution. I am prepared, as the gentleman 
from New York (Mr. John Cochrane) said the other day, to sail over 
many a stormy sea in the protection of that Union and of that Constitution. 
If I have read aright the history of its formation, its framers Lad troubles 
and trials far more vexatious and arduous than those we have undergone in 
preserving it. 

It was as long as from March to September, 1787, before they could 
agree upon an instrument, and before it could go out to the States for their 
ratification. They quarreled about the slave trade ; they quarreled about 
the three-fifths representation of slaves in making up this body ; they quar- 
relled on a hundred mooted issues, and it was not until such patriotic ap- 
peals were made, as we have heard here by gentlemen upon this side of 
the Chamber, that they could come together and agree upon this common 
Constitution. Too many of their descendants are too quick to listen to the 
cry of disunion. We of the Northwest have no affinity with any one who 
utters that cry, whether from the North or South ; whether it comes per 
se or per anything else. 

I remember an incident that occurred in the late Sepoy rebellion in In- 
dia — a servile insurrection — which might have found more than its counter- 
part, if the late aftair at Harper's Ferry had been consummated as it was 
designed. You remember that Lucknow was besieged for months, by those 
fiends in human shape, who did what Brown would have had the negroes 
of Virginia do. Death stared the beleaguered garrison in the face. The 
engineers even gave up hope. A day, and all would be lost! A fever- 
stricken Scotch lassie, overcome with fatigue, lay upon the ground, wrapped 
in her plaid and wrapped in slumber. Suddenly she gave a cry of joy. 
Her delirium passed away. She exclaimed: "Dinna ye not hear it? 
Dinna ye not hear it ? Ay, I am no dreamin'. It's the slogan of the High- 
landers. We're saved ! We're saved!" The young girl had a keen ear 
for her national music. She was from the Highlands — the home of the 
MacGregors and the Douglas 1 The duller ear of the Lowlands did not 
catch the inspiring strain. I think, sir, I may be pardoned for saying that 
we of the Northwest have a keener sense, a quicker ear for the music of the 
Union. Through the noise of strife, the clangor of arms, and the cannonade 
of insurrection, and while other sections have dulled their sense by too 
frequent allusions and reflections upon disunion, there remains in the North- 
west the ready love, the unselfish devotion, thfe intelligent fidelity, and the 
patriotic zeal which is quick to hail the music of the Union as the har- 
binger of our safety and repose ! (Applause from the galleries.) 






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